The year 2000 will bring big changes in communication.Cell phones will be small enough to carry in your pocket.Videophones will let you see the person you are talking to on the phone.Tiny hand size computers will know your favorite subjects.The Internet and email will be everywhere. Technologists believe 2000 will be the year of video messaging.You will be able to see whom you're talking to.

　　Also in the near future small wireless boxes will pick up information from satellites.In 5 years, computers won't need to be connected through wires.

　　All of this will be good for rural areas and countries that don't have cable or telephone now.

　　In 20 years you may only need to think about something and the computer will do it.

　　Constance Hale is the author of Sin and Syntax, "I believe that email has been an incredible boon to communication.People are writing today where they would have been telephoning yesterday.So people are engaging with words more than they have for the last couple generations."

　　If people use email and the Internet more, it could make people better readers and writers.Some people think the most important part of communication is to make people understand each other better.Will technology make that easier?

　　The translator also comes in handy in medical emergencies.Tam Dinh says, "Where people are injured it's always important to get as much information as quickly as possible."

　　Bob Parks is an Associate Editor of Wired Magazine, "Bob's morning begins at about 6:45 am.and Bob is kind of mad, because Bob usually gets up at around 7:15 and likes to cut it close with his morning commute, but I look at my radio and it says that there's a traffic jam on 101 South and I'm gonna need an extra 1/2 hour.And so my radio has got a net connection, wireless net connection as well as a good old powercord to the wall and it has received notice that there's a traffic jam and it has calculated an extra 1/2 hour commute time."

　　Some day everything may be connected to the Internet.Your refrigerator will add milk to your Internet grocery list when the date on the carton has passed.Light bulbs will be ordered before they burn out.

　　It's fun to try to guess the future.Usually the predictions are wrong.The one thing we know for sure is that we can't imagine how technology will change.

　　第36题 How will wireless computers and Internet services help rural areas?

　　A.One of the biggest barriers to Internet use is getting wires into rural areas.

　　B.The wireless computers will be cheaper.

　　C.People in rural areas don't have anything else to do.

　　D.People in rural areas already have wireless boxes on their roofs.

　　【正确答案】：A

　　试题解析：参见第二、三段。那些无线的设施可以用在没有电缆的农村。

　　第37题 Constance Hale says "email has been an incredible boon to communication".What Does she mean by this?

　　A.People want to see the person they are talking to on the phone.

　　B.email is easier than talking on the phone.

　　C.People are using writing and reading more with email.

　　D.email is not private enough.

　　【正确答案】：C

　　试题解析：参见第五段。Hale说今天的人们用得更多的是电子邮件。

　　第38题 In which case mentioned in the passage would an automatic language translator be helpful?

　　A.A medical emergency.

　　B.Police action.

　　C.Traveling.

　　D.All of the above.

　　【正确答案】：A

　　试题解析：参见倒数第四段。

　　第39题 Why did Bob Parks radio wake him up 1/2 hour earlier than usual?

　　A.The electricity had gone off during the night.

　　B.Bob had set the alarm wrong.

　　C.Bob did not want to be late.

　　D.The Internet had informed the radio of a traffic jam.

　　【正确答案】：D